


Trying and Tripping

by singingdevil



Series: It keeps disappearing, slowly until it's gone [1]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Blindness, Blood, Head Injury, Hospitals, M/M, and i'm going to hell for this, he's not blind but he's getting there, kise and takao are the best bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-08
Updated: 2016-04-08
Packaged: 2018-06-01 00:10:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6493306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singingdevil/pseuds/singingdevil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He finally finds the correct number and presses dial as he touches gingerly the back of his head, wincing. There’s a sore spot where he just got hit by something made out of glass when he tripped and fell against a drawer. He retracts his hand and squints at his fingers, deciding that yeah Shin-chan had better pick up and fast because the amount of blood coating his fingers and trickling down his neck can’t be healthy."</p><p>In which Takao trips, loses his glasses and hits his head and Midorima decided to walk to work this morning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trying and Tripping

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Yoko_Fujioka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoko_Fujioka/gifts).



> I don't know, I just really like the idea of the super eyes failing eventually. Sorry

It starts in their third year of high school, but although the occasional blurring of his eyes is annoying (and has once set off a full panic attack), he pays no real mind. He knows his eyes are failing, has always known they won't last forever, but he still brushes it off as nothing serious.

A year later he hears that the Emperor's eyes have lost all their light; Akashi has gone completely blind at only 19. From another source he hears that Izuki's eyes are failing too. At this point his own sight is, without glasses, limited to around five centimeters' radius without the horrible blur.

He has always relied on his eyes, so it comes as a shock. It's a shock that throws him off balance and affects both his mental and physical health. He's fine, usually, but his decreasing sight is unsettling in every way and it makes him more careful and jumpy and wary of his surroundings, even causes him to lose sleep at times because _what if he wakes up and can’t see anymore_. It scares him. Everything scares him because what if something happens or what if something _doesn’t_ happen and he can’t _see_ it.

He chooses photography as his major in college because he can see through the camera's lens _clearly_ and he's pretty good at it.

His boyfriend starts the medicine studies. He doesn't specialize on eyes, but he studies the topic quite eagerly.

They're 24 when the camera is Takao's only way to see clearly.

* * *

 

Takao fumbles for his phone in his pocket and brings it near his face, squinting at the glowing screen that's probably killing his sight further, but at this point it doesn't really matter anymore; even with the damn thick glasses doubled with the contact lenses the haze starts from about ten meters away. He's not wearing either ones at the moment, though, because the contacts are plain horrible (he can manage with a bit blurry sight when he’s home) and he just dropped his glasses.

He's sitting on the floor, trying to find Shin-chan's number from his absurdly long contact list (he works as a freelance photographer, he has names after names after names of different journalists and magazines and newspapers) because his damn smartphone is new and he hasn't discovered any kind of speed dial option. It's about 1 PM which means Shin-chan should be having a lunch break now. Takao feels kinda bad for interrupting his boyfriend but the hospital he works at is pretty close and it's Tuesday so he sure as hell isn't going to call anyone to take him there as long as he doesn't absolutely have to.

He finally finds the correct number and presses dial as he touches gingerly the back of his head, wincing. There’s a sore spot where he just got hit by something made out of glass when he tripped and fell against a drawer. He retracts his hand and squints at his fingers, deciding that yeah Shin-chan had better pick up and fast because the amount of blood coating his fingers and trickling down his neck can’t be healthy.

 _“Kazu?”_ Midorima’s voice asks from the other end of the line at the second the call connects.

“Shin-chan! Thank god you answered...” Takao lets out a relieved sigh. ”Hey, I know it’s probably your lunch break or coffee break or whatever it is but can you come home for a bit?” he smiles sheepishly although he knows Midorima can’t see it, but his tone has always reflected his expression pretty well so he’s pretty sure the man can hear it even though his voice sounds strained.

 _“Why?”_ Midorima’s tone immediately takes a worried edge. _“Is there something wrong?”_

Takao feels something twist his insides at the concerned tone; he knows Midorima has been constantly worrying about him since he started losing his sight, always making sure that there’s nothing he could possibly trip on or walk into.

“Actually, I, uh...” he doesn’t really know how to phrase his current condition without giving his boyfriend a minor heart attack. “I tripped and I don’t know where my glasses are and my head is bleeding,” he blurts out. Through the line Takao can hear how Midorima abruptly stands up and knocks over something that’s probably a chair and he winces, already feeling absolutely horrible even before he hears the panicked _“Are you okay!?”_ in his ears.

“I don’t know,” the hawk sighs truthfully, not daring shake his head although it feels like a natural thing to do. “There are glass shards all around me, I knocked something over and it fell right on my head, and this amount of blood probably isn’t really healthy...” he squints at his fingers again, not sure if his eyes are blurring or not. The wound is slowly starting to pound in the rhythm of his pulse, making him feel vaguely sick.

He hears Midorima sigh painfully, frustrated and scared. _“Oh god_ _,_ _Kazu_ _,_ _I didn’t take the car this morning...”_ he groans. _“Listen, I’m going to call Kise, he knows where the spare key is, and I’ll get him to take you here, okay? How do you feel?”_

“Mmm... My head hurts, obviously... I’m pretty much fine for now, I think,” he lies a little to comfort the man on the other end of the line although he knows he really shouldn’t do it – Midorima has told him enough times to _never_ lie about his condition if he gets hurt or is sick or anything like that, but he’s not too far gone yet to start listing everything that seems off.

 _“Alright. I’m calling Kise now. If he can’t come I’m calling Kuroko, okay? Stay put, don’t move. Even if you start feeling sleepy or otherwise out of it, stay awake._ _Love you_ _._ _”_ And with that, the line goes silent.

* * *

 

Midorima stares at his phone for a moment before he tells his assistant to tell his colleagues that he’ll be back in a second, he just has to make a call – maybe two depending on if the happy-go-lucky model answers or not – to make sure that his boyfriend who’d really rather die than go into an ambulance (because they are cramped and small and he can’t move in there and he’s more than just a little claustrophobic) doesn’t faint or die because of a possible brain injury (because you have to always suspect the worst in order to avoid mistakes caused by carelessness).

He finds Kise’s name from his contact list and presses the dial, silently begging for the other man to pick up and fast. He doesn’t really expect anything else (Kise always seems to have his phone close, either to answer messages or because he’s annoyingly active on social media), so even the two beeps feel agonizingly long.

 _“Midorimacchi?”_ the cheerful voice asks at the second the phone is picked up. _“How rare of you to call me,”_ Kise chuckles. _“What’s up?”_

Kise is almost disgustingly cheerful and Midorima almost regrets calling him, but he lives pretty close and his working schedule is nearly as ridiculous as Takao’s so he’s probably home or at least on his way.

“I need a favor,” he deadpans, not in the mood to even try to be polite (he really doesn’t need to with any of the Miracles except for maybe Akashi but really). “Are you home?”

 _“Eh? I’m on my way, I just got off from a photoshoot. What is it?”_ his voice is laced with surprise; Midorima rarely calls and even more rarely asks for anything.

“Can you go to our place to pick up Kazunari and take him to the hospital? I’d go myself but I don’t have a car. You know where the spare key is, right?” Midorima keeps his voice professional but he can’t help the concern that’s seeping into his tone, making him sound strained.

Kise seems to notice something off. _“Why? Is Takaocchi okay?”_

“I don’t know. He said he hit his head, apparently pretty badly. So, can you?”

_“Yeah, I’ll go pick him up. The spare key is still at the same place, right? Is there anything else?”_

“Yes, it’s still there. Also, please call me when you get there. I want to know how he is before he gets here,” Midorima says, taking off his glasses and bringing his fingers to massage the bridge of his nose.

 _“Okay, got it. I’ll see you there,”_ Kise says, his tone determined.

“Thank you.” Midorima says this sincerely, not bothering to wait for Kise’s answer before disconnecting the call. Now he just has to wait.

* * *

 

Kise places his phone onto the passenger’s seat and takes a sharp turn to the right, glad that there’s not much traffic. He _does_ follow the traffic laws, at least mostly (the speed doesn’t really count when it’s not so much above the limit, right?), and even if he didn’t, his boyfriend is a police officer so he’d probably get away with it.

He’s about five minutes from Midorima and Takao’s house and he’s _worried_. He’s been hanging out with Takao frequently since their second year of high school because really, the boy (man now, though) has always had a great sense of humor and they’ve got along well since they met. This isn’t the first time he’s taking the hawk to the hospital after some kind of an accident but those have been small injuries like a twisted ankle or something like that because he hates the contacts and refuses to use them much which always results in him tripping on something. This, however, sounds much more serious, at least judging by Midorima’s tone when he called and the urgency lacing his voice. There’s something he didn’t tell Kise, the blond is sure of that.

Midorima and Takao live in a nice small detached house. Kise pulls into the driveway and hops off, slamming the door shut and barely remembering to lock the car. He walks straight to the four-panel kitchen window and lifts the aluminum sill a little. There’s a small crack beneath it and that’s where Midorima has decided to keep their spare key. Well, whatever makes him happy, Kise guesses. Midorima has always been a bit weird.

He grabs the key and walks to the door, opening it quickly and stepping into the house. He closes the door quietly behind him and sets the key to the countertop in the hallway, not bothering to take off his shoes.

“Takaocchi?” he calls softly. It takes a few seconds before he hears the quiet “Kise?” from the living room, so he heads there.

Nothing could have really prepared him for Takao’s current condition. He’d realized it was worse than a twisted ankle at the second Midorima had called him, but still.

The man is on the floor, surrounded by something that was probably a glass vase, blood dripping down his neck. He’s against a counter, looking drowsy and confused and more than a little in pain. The fingers of his left hand are smeared with blood and his glasses are nowhere to be seen. Takao squints his eyes, a futile effort considering that he really can’t see past two centimeters without additional help, and tilts his head a bit, biting his lip as the movement apparently hurts.

Kise stands in shock for almost three seconds before rushes to Takao’s side, carefully avoiding the sharp fragments on the floor.

“Oh my god, Takaocchi,” he mumbles, his fingers tracing the bleeding wound in the back of his head. “What happened?” the blond asks, mildly horrified and not bothering to ask if he’s okay because he can see very clearly that the hawk is _not_.

“I tripped. What did I break?” Takao mutters, his eyes wandering around and finding nothing. He lets out a little breathless laugh, shifting his nearly-unseeing eyes to Kise and blinking owlishly.

“Looks like a vase to me,” Kise answers. “Come on, let’s get you up now. I’ll try to do something about the bleeding before I take you to the hospital.” Carefully he drapes Takao’s arm over his shoulders and gets up slowly, helping Takao to the ridiculously soft couch. All the lights are already on so he just tells Takao to bend his neck a little so he can get a closer look.

From what he can see through Takao’s thick dark hair, it looks pretty bad to Kise. It’s not one wound; it’s a collection of several mismatched cuts, some deeper than the others and there are some tiny shards of glass between them and some of them have embedded themselves into his skin.

“Okay, I’m calling Midorimacchi now.”  Kise fishes his phone out of his pocket. “Hey, raise your head a little. How do you feel?” he asks, already lifting Takao’s chin and locking his eyes with the silvery blue ones, and frowns; despite the light, the hawk’s pupils are dilated, though it could be also because he can’t see much – this isn’t Kise’s area of expertise, how should he know. But if there’s one thing he knows, it’s that Takao is not supposed to be so out of it and that he needs immediate medical attention.

Midorima picks up almost immediately, listens to Kise's short explanation of what seems to have happened and tells him to be careful. His tone has gone from worried to professional as he instructs the blond to keep the wound covered but not pressured and to make sure that Takao doesn’t fall unconscious. He also asks Kise to find Takao’s glasses because it will make things so much easier to have the hawk see something. Kise glances around, trying to look for the glasses and just hoping that they’re not broken. On the couch, Takao is holding his head and looking like he’s gonna pass out soon. Blood is still dripping down his neck, most of it collecting to the collar of his shirt, and although his eyes are open Kise knows he’s not seeing anything, isn’t even trying to see.

He hangs up after promising Midorima to call if things go worse, and then starts looking for the glasses. He finds them under the counter he originally found Takao leaning against, thankfully not broken or even askew, and brings them to the hawk. Kise starts searching for something to cover Takao's head with, but when he asks about it, he gets told not to put anything on it. Takao's voice is feeble but determined - he just wants to get this over with, wants the pulsating ache and nausea to go away and maybe his sight back because although it has been years, he can still remember the feeling of being able to see everything around him so clearly, the surreal feeling of standing on the basketball court with Shin-chan and knowing exactly what's happening around him without any additional help such as glasses or the god-awful contact lenses.

Kise hesitates for a moment, seeing as Midorima told him to cover the cuts with something, but Takao seems hell-bent on not having anything over the wound because it _hurts_ so he eventually decides to leave it at that and just take him to the hospital instead of wasting time and arguing about it. Kise wipes most of the blood off and helps Takao up after handing him his glasses, observing worriedly how the shorter sways and wobbles on his feet, other arm around Kise's shoulders and the other leaning on the wall one moment and gripping his head the next.

Kise helps Takao to the car and goes to retrieve the spare key to lock the door, not bothering to put it back under the sill where he got it from. Somehow, though, the hawk manages to notice this and tells him, head supported by his arms propped up against his knees, to go put it back before they leave.

"Eh? I'll just give it to Midorimacchi when we get to the hospital," the blonde notes, ready to get going.

"No," Takao insists, carefully shaking his head and then wincing. "Shin-chan doesn't like it when things are not where they're supposed to be." Kise gives him a puzzled look. He doesn't really get where his friend is getting at, but after the second "no, it has to be where it's supposed to be" he complies, not wanting to argue when there are better things to do. Takao's voice is as shaky as his walking just before, feeble and breathy and Kise doesn't think the hawk even knows what he's talking about anymore. He looks about as steady as a newborn kitten, even when he's sitting on the passenger’s seat in Kise’s car. The model casts him a worried glance, closing the door, and climbs to the driver’s seat.

* * *

 

The ten-minute drive is fortunately uneventful, and as Kise pulls to the hospital’s parking lot Takao is still conscious and able to walk on his own. He looks dizzy, but Kise’s offer to help is rejected. Takao feels downright awful at this point, with the car ride having just made his nausea worse and his vision twisting funnily. Midorima is waiting for them, though, and Kise gladly hands the hawk over to the doctor.

He gets diagnosed with a medium concussion and gets sent home under the condition of Midorima watching over him. He gets heavy-duty painkillers for his headache that still seems to be getting worse by the minute, but apparently anything else is deemed as useless because he should just rest until Midorima says otherwise. He also gets a referral to an eye doctor because the doctor examining the extent of the damage to his brain cells thinks that his eyes may have gone worse again. Takao thanks the deities for Midorima being a doctor and having a fairly decent salary and a few contacts around because in the end, the medical expenses hurt their financial balance no matter the insurance (and his paydays come and go with no pattern at all with an irregular sum of money).

Kise gives them a ride home, chattering about everything and nothing the whole way back to the house. On the backseat Takao's head is on Midorima's shoulder, his eyes closed and probably bordering unconscious with the amount of drugs in his system.

Midorima nearly carries Takao inside and thanks Kise for his help, words sincerely grateful. Kise smiles and tells him to just get Takao well again and that it was no problem at all, really.

So Kise leaves and Midorima leaves Takao to sleep and goes to clean up the glass still on the floor, hoping that the hawk’s eyes can still see when he wakes up. 

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooooooooooooooo......... Feedback?


End file.
